Beartooth Highway

RED LODGE – A spring storm left the Beartooth Highway covered in snow and ice, preventing crews from opening it on schedule this Friday for Memorial Day weekend.

The 68-mile highway runs from Red Lodge to Cooke City, over the 10,947-foot Beartooth Pass, and allows access to one of the country’s most scenic drives and Yellowstone’s Northeast entrance.

Each year road crews from the Montana Department of Transportation and the National Park Service spend weeks clearing snow from the road, leaving towering snowbanks. This May 24 video from the road crew shows what the conditions have been like:

Yellowstone National Park is open for the summer, but some roads may close due to weather or road construction.